I was recently interviewed via email by Bindu Rai, assistant editor for a magazine in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), for an article on metro-spirituality, which I have written a couple of articles about. Not sure how much of what I had to say they will ultimately end up using, but I thought I’d include the full un-edited version here, since most of us will probably never see the final version coming out of Dubai, unfortunately.

BINDU: How would you best explain the term ‘metrospiritual’? And what lifestyle do you need to adopt to be branded as one?

TIM: Consumerism is America’s true religion. It is not Christianity, atheism, humanism or some other philosophy or system of spirituality. The simple fact is that everyone spends money, everyone shops – it doesn’t matter what you believe. But what it is that you buy is often determined largely by beliefs, values and lifestyles.

Few people realize it, but I think shopping itself has become a spiritual act for the great majority of us. Stores are temples. Instead of a priest giving us a sacrament at an altar, we have cashiers who enable us to ritually transform our effort, our money, into a physical object which doubles as a cultural symbol of who we are and who we would like to be.

In that sense, I don’t think “metro-spirituality” is really anything new at all. Consumerism is already fundamentally hooked into spirituality and self-image. But the term metro-spiritual seems to be used nowadays to refer to someone whose purchasing choices are based around a kind of non-denominational generic sense of spirituality, ecology and social responsibility. We try to give our money to corporations who are “less evil” and who give back in some sense to the world and the community. The companies who are most successful among metro-spiritual markets are those which reflect back on us those types of value systems: they use their stores, products and marketing materials to talk to us about things like organics, sustainability, environmental impact, social justice, fair trade, etc.

Do you feel that metro-spirituality is yet another marketing gimmick, or do you feel it has the makings of a holistic revolution?

It is absolutely another marketing gimmick. As evidence of that, we can easily see that the term originally gained traction on the internet in conjunction with specific brand names which were described as exemplifying the metro-spiritual lifestyle: Whole Foods, Anthropologie, Aveda – just to name a few.

That said, can a marketing gimmick coincide with or even inspire a revolution? The point of marketing, in a sense, is to use the tools of the anthropologist to study target audiences – to get inside of their heads, their lifestyles and value systems, and then to echo these with products and trends which support what people are already doing. But at the same time on top of that, businesses create outlets or channels to contain the energy of cultural movements and direct their fulfillment into a system which profits the businesses. As long as the target audience believes that they themselves are also profiting by it, everyone is happy with the arrangement – at least on the surface.

For holistic thinking to really catch on though and ignite a global revolution in consciousness, it’s absolutely essential that businesses climb on board. So in some sense, it may be an example of a positive feedback loop operating within culture that the people are teaching businesses about the need for holistic thinking by the way that they are spending money.

Why do you feel the term has caught on so much in recent times? Are people so keen on being segmented as part of a particular market, or is it simply popular because it sounds ‘cool’?

I haven’t seen the term catch on all that much. It flared up quickly after an article published by Beliefnet on the subject, but soon after died down. I haven’t really heard anyone mention it online or off for several months.

I think most of the people within the target market for a marketing label like “metro-spiritual” are too smart or culturally savvy to really adopt it in a serious way. We tend to live the lifestyles we do because we are fed up with marketing, consumerism, manipulation and exploitation in the name of business. We are trying to make more spiritual, more ecological and more meaningful choices in our lives because it is the right thing to do, not because we have an innate need to be part of a marketing demographic.

Do you feel metro-spirituality is limited to the West, or are Eastern cultures suddenly embracing their cultural history?

As an American, it’s difficult for me to read Eastern cultures the same way as I would understand how people think and feel here. But I do feel that, at least in the West, thanks in large part to the internet, there is absolutely an explosion of interest in and availability of information regarding other cultures, alternate worldviews and belief systems and the history of the human race. It’s undeniable that this ready availability is fueling a re-connection with our spiritual roots as humans.

But do commodities reflect true spirituality? That seems to be the question raised by metro-spirituality. The overwhelming answer from most of the world’s religions seems to be a resounding “No!” Buddhism obviously teaches that desire is the root of our suffering, since it re-inforces a separation between one’s self and everything else. I think metro-spirituality falls into this same problem as well: teaching us to believe that we can be satisfied and fulfilled by where we shop and what we buy. It’s consumerism infused with a phony sense of reverence. Can you guy God? I certainly don’t think so.

Who do you think popularized the term in modern times? Or was it a combination of people slowly embracing the values and norms of eras gone by?

I think the term and the cultural movement it represents are two different things. The term “metro-spirituality” seems to me to be a calculated attempt by a set of companies to crystallize an un-named shared cultural experience and force it into a particular shape which will strengthen their brand image and make them more money.

How has metro-sexuality been advantageous to society today and vice versa?

A friend of mine once said that metro-sexuality is just a method to teach men how to be vain. That is, the goal is and was to tap into an under-served market: male cosmetics, fashion and body care products. You can see the difference whenever you walk into a clothing store: the men’s section is usually far less than half the size (more often a quarter of the size or less) of the women’s section. And the selection is typically very bland and uninspired, as compared to huge variety of options available to women. I believe that metro-sexuality was a very conscious effort made by companies working together to change cultural attitudes, so that they could tap into new markets and increase profits.

And they have been very successful, obviously. Has it been beneficial? Perhaps. Men seem to be somewhat more comfortable with fashion, with shopping, and with self-image than they were maybe 5 or 10 years ago. With that, many sexual stereotypes have begun to relax, as far as men needing to be “macho.” And we’ve also seen a simultaneous increase in the acceptability of homosexuality as well within the culture. Whether these things are seen as positive or negative, however, will probably be dependent on what your viewpoint and belief systems are regarding gender roles, social cohesion and individual freedom.

One blogger had profound words to add on metro-spirituality: “Metrospiritual — what hooey. That’s just a new name for an old decade. It was called the 70s.” What’s your take on it?

This comment reflects a rather common negative stereotype a lot of people of my generation (I’m 26) seem to have regarding the recent past. We look at the counter-culture of the 1960’s and 70’s and what we see are a lot of promises but a lot of failures. Maybe our parents generation helped to end the Vietnam War, but we didn’t end war altogether and those values haven’t enabled us to prevent the rise of despots and demagogues at home and abroad.

So I think a lot of people write off these decades. But there are a great many of us who have gone deeper than that frustration, have gone back to the literature of the counter-culture in these eras, the movies and poetry and music, and have unearthed the gems and tapped into the impulses which lay dormant there. But I don’t think any of us doing that would consider ourselves metro-spirituals, because to align yourself with a brand name, with a marketing label like that is to give someone else – even worse, a company – the keys to who and what you are.